Radek Stepanek loves grass, although grass has not always loved him. The 35-year-old Czech, ranked 42 in the world but playing the sort of tennis that got him into the top 10 eight years ago, is in the semi-finals at Queen’s and smiles wryly when he is reminded he has never won a tournament on the surface that so suits his game, singles or doubles.

On the eve of Wimbledon, where his best showing was a five-set war against Jonas Bjorkman in the 2006 quarter-finals (after losing to a teenaged Andy Murray in three sets the year before), it is not an encouraging CV.

“When you say it like that, yes, it is disappointing,” he said with a grin, after beating Kevin Anderson 1-6, 6-3, 6-2 in the quarter-finals on Friday.

“But the grass-court season is really short. Most years, I played only one tournament before Wimbledon, and then Wimbledon. So the margin is pretty tight. But, you know, it’s not over yet.”

Stepanek drew on all his experience to first hang with then subdue the 6ft 8in Anderson, who thrashed 15 aces past him but could not match his court craft over an hour and 37 minutes. Any top-line player who can serve like that on grass in high summer, with only five unreturnables coming back, would expect to win – but Stepanek had history on his side, and produced a quite remarkable stat.

“I won a match and I faced 78 aces,” he recalled without a blink. “Ivo Karlovic, Dr Ivo. 2009 Davis Cup semi-finals in Croatia. 78 aces. Six hours exactly.”

This instant recall of a five-year-old match perhaps explains why Stepanek has not lost his love of a game he started playing professionally 19 years ago.

And he says he can remember every match he has ever played. “All of them. Some people have it in their computers, and all the stats. I have my computer here,” he said, tapping his head.

“When I think about some match, I know exactly how the day was, what was going on – if there was something going on. For me, it comes automatically. Definitely it helps to take these memories and go back to the matches, knowing what you did good, what you did wrong.

“A lot of players have their favourite shots in favourite situations, especially when the pressure comes. Everybody sticks to what they like. We all know that. When you’re on the tour like me for quite a few years, the guys who are there with you, you know them inside out.”

Stepanek took half-hearted exception this week when it was politely suggested that he was doing well to compete at the highest level with younger opponents. He had, after all, seen off Murray in straight sets to get to Anderson, he pointed out.

His matter-of-fact analysis of his win over 28-year-old Anderson, who is rated 24 places ahead of him in the world rankings, might almost be his career mantra.

“It’s great to beat a top guy [in Murray], but it’s even tougher to back it up with a win again. I wouldn’t say I had a slow start because Kevin played a perfect game of tennis in the first set. For a half hour I really had no chance. He hit every shot perfectly.

“I just had to wait until the first weaker moment and take my chance, which happened in the first of his service games in the second set. I got in front and ran through those two sets pretty comfortably.”

Stepanek beat Anderson partly because he had his number; he knew where the ball was going – even if, for a set, it looked as if he was going to get blown away. Against more unpredictable or unknown players, he says, a lot of good players struggle, citing his win from behind over five sets against the Argentinian Facundo Arguello in the first round of the French Open this month.

“I really didn’t know who he was,” he said of the 117th-ranked Arguello, whom he beat in three tough sets in the Czech Republic the following week. “He won three, four challengers in South America, played with huge confidence.

“I was two sets to love down until I figured him out. I broke him down, won the third set and was able to win it in five. But it was the perfect example of when you don’t know the player, and what he can come up with.”